Ultra-processed foods: challenging corporate power and promoting local food systems to reclaim health.

The 2025 Lancet Series on ultra-processed foods (UPFs) marks a turning point in global health by reframing UPFs not simply as unhealthy products, but as outcomes of food systems shaped by corporate power, trade liberalisation, and extractive economic models. The Series demonstrates that UPFs are a distinct category of harm and a major structural driver of the global obesity crisis, with profound implications for equity, sustainability, and food sovereignty. This commentary builds on the Series to identify pathways for effective policy and civil society action, focusing on the political economy of UPF proliferation and the role of local and community-based food systems in countering corporate power. It also considers structural constraints on government action, including limited fiscal capacity linked to sovereign debt and restricted policy space. In line with the Series, we encourage civic action to advance food policies in all countries, including taxation, legislation on the right to food, statutory restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy foods, and mandatory front-of-package warning labels. Strengthening food sovereignty through community financing and support for small-scale producers is a critical but underdeveloped lever for obesity prevention and health equity. We contend that, in the face of globally organised UPF industries, local action requires sustained support. This involves protecting civic space and securing sustainable financing for civil society, potentially through health-related fiscal revenues, so it can organise, participate meaningfully, and hold both states and corporations accountable. Regulating the food industry is essential to creating healthier food environments. Scaling local food systems, in turn, requires supportive national policies and strengthened global governance, including stronger safeguards against corporate interference and, potentially, treaty-level mechanisms. We outline how the World Obesity Federation can support this agenda by amplifying evidence from the Lancet Series, facilitating policy learning, strengthening alliances, building coalitions, and promoting accountability. Together, these actions can help shift food systems away from UPFs towards healthier, more equitable, and sustainable futures.